[quote=harvey][quote=Jazzman]All said and done, the USSR was enormously successful in some respects. It created a super power, a huge industrial complex, an enviable space program and a secret service that out-foxed even British intelligence.[/quote]

And the USA and Western Europe did all that much better.

Your point?

Anyway, this conversation was a response to a claim above that “we actually are more socialist than capitalist.”

I say that’s not true. And I’m not hearing any arguments to the contrary. The verbal gymnastics around the definition of socialism and CAr’s predictable self-certification of intellectual superiority are not compelling.[/quote]

Our economy is $16.3 Trillion in 2014, government spending at all levels is $6.6 Trillion.

In California, we are centrally dictating the ratio of electricity to be generate by ” green” sources.

We regulate safety standards, car fuel economy fleet standards,, provide free education, have extensive safety nets, regulate air quality, water quality, labor laws, minimum wages, we extensively regulate most start up businesses that are doing it above board (go open a restaurant to see the regulations), we have building codes, plenty of places with rent control, public utility commissions to set rates and terms for utilities, etc..

We are far from a free market capitalist society which I’m sure you’re quite aware was my point but instead want to argue semantics. Yes we still privatize a lot of profits and have significant wealth gap but we’ve massively tempered the capitalism we run with socialist ideals.